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Google plans to ease the Android update problem (The H)Google plans to ease the Android update problem (The H)Posted Jun 30, 2012 8:51 UTC (Sat) by neilbrown (subscriber, #359)In reply to: Google plans to ease the Android update problem (The H) by slashdot Parent article: Google plans to ease the Android update problem (The H)
You seem to be assuming that no new bugs will be introduced - which is not my experience.
A phone vendor would certainly need to do a substantial amount of testing before releasing a new image to their customers. I suspect that could be where a good chunk of where the "2 to 3 months" goes. Or am I optimistic?
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Google plans to ease the Android update problem (The H) Posted Jun 30, 2012 18:53 UTC (Sat) by Kit (guest, #55925) [Link]
I think you're being too optimistic.
On the Fascinate, for example, the carrier pushed out an update that _completely broken_ the 'emergency call' lock screen button, which is one of the few things the carrier would actually get in trouble for if it was broken! It took them a while to notice, and once it gained a bit of publicity, they had were able to produce and release an update to fix the problem in only a matter of a couple days.
While I'm sure there is some time added to allow the carrier to some work to ensure nothing vital is broken, I imagine that most carriers only employ enough people to really do the necessary work for whatever is their flagship phone... letting all others just sit until they have nothing better to do (and then drop working on a phone immediately if there's a new update for the flagship that needs to be worked on).
emergency call Posted Jul 1, 2012 9:47 UTC (Sun) by tialaramex (subscriber, #21167) [Link]
I'd be totally unsurprised if the "emergency call" functionality, despite its life-saving importance and thus the necessity of testing it does not actually have any formal test systems in most or perhaps all countries. That is, you can "just" take a phone you're testing out to the real world, dial 112 and then apologise when you get through, but there's no way to test without wasting critical resources in this way.
This was certainly true for COSPAS/SARSAT's distress beacons until relatively late in their history. The best you could do was inform the SAR resources in your country of your intention to test, tell them you don't need rescuing, then activate the beacon. Most likely they would ask you not to, and often it was technically illegal, regardless of the necessity of running such tests during development and benchmarking.
emergency call Posted Jul 1, 2012 19:29 UTC (Sun) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link]
>That is, you can "just" take a phone you're testing out to the real world, dial 112 and then apologise when you get through, but there's no way to test without wasting critical resources in this way.
That's not true. You can schedule a test call with your local emergency center. People developing Cyanogen Mod for Vibrant Galaxy S had to do this because of broken 911 functionality.
emergency call Posted Jul 3, 2012 10:25 UTC (Tue) by rich0 (guest, #55509) [Link]
Yup, from what I read it isn't uncommon for PBX installers and such to plan test calls with 911. The 911 center understand that such testing is important for public safety and usually provides some way to handle it.
I'd think that a carrier would be able to implement such testing without even bothering the 911 center. Presumably they could redirect the call from a specific device/tower/etc to someplace else. They could even stick the phone in a Faraday cage with a microcell to test it.
emergency call Posted Jul 4, 2012 0:19 UTC (Wed) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link]
That's more complex than you think. 911 calls are not processed like normal calls.
For example, 911 calls can automatically transmit GPS position and other information.
emergency call Posted Jul 11, 2012 8:34 UTC (Wed) by tialaramex (subscriber, #21167) [Link]
I'm glad to know that arrangements to do real tests for emergency phone calls exist in the US at least, thanks.
emergency call Posted Jul 13, 2012 0:46 UTC (Fri) by JanC_ (guest, #34940) [Link]
All calls can (and sometimes do) automatically transmit GPS information and such, that's not specific to 911 calls. (But I suppose you mean you would want to actually test that functionality for 911.)
emergency call Posted Jul 13, 2012 1:01 UTC (Fri) by Fowl (subscriber, #65667) [Link] That seems unlikely, as spinning up the GPS chip uses a substantial amount of power. Unless you mean "cell tower triangulation data" instead of "GPS"?
emergency call Posted Jul 13, 2012 9:26 UTC (Fri) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link]
No. That means "GPS".
In Samsung Galaxy S, for example, there's a special protocol between radio interface layer and GPS daemon.
I don't really think people care much about shortened talk time due to GPS when calling 911.
emergency call Posted Jul 13, 2012 18:58 UTC (Fri) by Fowl (subscriber, #65667) [Link] I was referring to nonemergency calls.
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